The best books you've ever read

[JustNotFunAnymore]

Following on the from the other thread
where someone asked what the most ridiculous thing you've read in a book was. (And therefore ruining anything on my wish list 😂)
I want to know what the best book you've read is. What book I must read soon.

I'm partway through 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama. I got it as a sample and after two or three chapters had to buy it on my kindle. It's so good. She writes really well.

I really enjoyed Maria's Papers by Stephen F Clegg. His writing is very descriptive; makes me feel I'm there with the characters.

I also enjoy Robin Cook's medical thrillers, especially Coma, which was made into a film in the early 80s. Harlan Coben's books are great, too.

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I love anything by Jodi Picoult. Her research is so good I always learn something new from her novels. The first one I read was called Plain Truth, and it got me hooked on her writing.

Oh, and:
Atonement by Ian McEwan;
Matilda by Roald Dahl;
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak (is that his name?);
Harry Potter by JK Transphobe:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith;
Know My Name by Chanel Miller;
and no doubt more I'll remember and come back with.

A fire upon the deep by Vernon Vinge

Warning - I am VERY lowbrow but the books I reread as comfort food for the mind are;

The Other Side of the Story - Marian Keyes
Harnessing Peacocks - Mary Wesley
Rivals - Jilly Cooper
The Hunger Games trilogy
The First Fifty - Muriel Gray (I love her waspish style of writing)

I've read loads of others and love(d) picking up random books in charity shops to try but those are the ones I return to regularly.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (nothing has ever beaten this for me)
Memoirs of a Geisha
The House of the Spirits
Rebecca

Christ, how could I have forgotten Fingersmith/ The Night Watch/The Little Friend? Sarah Waters.
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AND Watership Down!

Also loved The Secret History. Fave childhood book is I capture the Castle.

The Stand- Stephen King

So glad it’s had a few mentions.

@Needhelp101

Christ, how could I have forgotten Fingersmith/ The Night Watch/The Little Friend? Sarah Waters. a AND Watership Down!

Reading Fingersmith at the moment! It’s making me stay up too late!

LincolnshireYellowBelly
You might also like
Kim by Rudyard Kipling, it is of it's time with very dated language but it is so evocative.
Rebecca and Jamaica Inn?
The kite runners?
Tess of the D'urbevilles?

One book that I would recommend above anything else is The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - it is just fantastic.

@Needhelp101

Christ, how could I have forgotten Fingersmith/ The Night Watch/The Little Friend? Sarah Waters. a AND Watership Down!

I love Sarah Waters. She has written a book for such a long time.

Marshmallows for breakfast - Dorothy Koomitzon. (If i spelt it correctly)
Tattooist of Auschwitz.
It’s children’s literature but they are so beautiful and gorgeously written - the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman. Start with the city of masks. Amazing

@junebirthdaygirl

Already mentioned The Poisonwoood Bible Barbara Kingsolver Or any of her books but that's the best.

Agree with this. She’s a fantastic writer.

East of Eden, Rachel's Holiday, Wuthering Heights, most things by Karin Slaughter and about a hundred other books that don't spring to mind right now.

Rebecca - du Maurier
Cutting for Stone - Vorghese
Out of Love - Clayton
Seconding Dorothy Sayers' books

The most recent one of these I've read is song of Achilles by madeleine Miller. I read Circe first and enjoyed it but Song of Achilles was just great. Surprised by how much I loved it.

Many mentioned above:

Behind the scenes at the museum
Secret history
Rachel's holiday
Persuasion
Rivals (god bless Jilly)
We need to talk about Kevin

All hugely dog eared on my bookshelf. I need a new secret history as it's fallen apart.

@Penners99

A fire upon the deep by Vernon Vinge

Oh, I love this! And A Deepness In the Sky

YY to East of Eden and The Heart's Invisible Furies!

@81Byerley

I love anything by Jodi Picoult. Her research is so good I always learn something new from her novels. The first one I read was called Plain Truth, and it got me hooked on her writing.

Same I love everything she's written but struggling with her latest -the Egypt one. Have stopped and will go back to it next week and see if it was just me.

I love 'Emma'.

The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt)

Le Grand Meaulnes (Alain-Fournier)

Restoration (Rose Tremain)

If a trilogy's allowed, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall books. I couldn't pick just one.

@StellaOlivetti I thought I was the only other living human to have read Diary of a Mad Housewife! Sadly I read and gave it away long before I got married and became a SAHM! Must look for a copy...

My literary choices are distinctly low-brow, although I've been a voracious reader since being a young child (used to take half a suitcase of books on holidays pre-DC!) My favourites are...
I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
Any Jilly Cooper, but Rivals is the best
The Rebus books - Ian Rankin
The Reacher books - Lee Child (I am more than a little bit in love with Reacher)

I am currently going a bit more upmarket though as I am reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton as DD1 and I are absolutely obsessed with the musical (as you might guess by my name...!)